Sebastian Maslow & Christian Wirth 
Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State [EPUB ebook] 

Mired in national crises since the early 1990s, Japan has had to respond to a rapid population decline; the Asian and global financial crises; the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown; the COVID-19 pandemic; China’s economic rise; threats from North Korea; and massive public debt. In
Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State, established specialists in a variety of areas use a coherent set of methodologies, aligning their sociological, public policy, and political science and international relations perspectives, to account for discrepancies between official rhetoric and policy practice and actual perceptions of decline and crisis in contemporary Japan. Each chapter focuses on a distinct policy field to gauge the effectiveness and the implications of political responses through an analysis of how crises are narrated and used to justify policy interventions. Transcending boundaries between issue areas and domestic and international politics, these essays paint a dynamic picture of the contested but changing nature of social, economic, and, ultimately political institutions as they constitute the transforming Japanese state.

Table of Content

Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgments

Conventions



Introduction: Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State


Christian Wirth and Sebastian Maslow




Part I: Narrating Japan’s Social Crisis



1. Japan’s Melting Core: Social Frames and Political Crisis Narratives of Rising Inequalities


David Chiavacci



2. Authoritarian Populism in Everyday Life: The Discursive Politics of Demographic and Lifestyle Changes in Japan


Hiroko Takeda



3. Save Our Students? Shifting Subjects of Higher Education Crisis in Japan


Jeremy Breaden




Part II: Narrating Japan’s Political and Economic Crises



4. A Crisis of Democracy: Civil Society and Energy Politics Before and After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster


Koichi Hasegawa



5. From Leader to Laggard? Crisis Narratives and Structural Reform in Japanese Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy


Iris Wieczorek



6. Contradiction and Discontent in Japan: Abenomics and the Failing Politics of Economic Reform


Saori Shibata




Part III: Narrating Japan’s National Security Crisis



7. ‘Failures’ and ‘Crises’ in Japanese Foreign Policy: The Democratic Party of Japan’s Rule 2009–2012


Paul O’Shea



8. From Ashes to New: The Delegitimization and Comeback of Japan’s Official Development Assistance


Raymond Yamamoto



9. A State of Crisis: North Korean Missiles, Abductions, and the Transformation of Postwar Japan


Ra Mason and Sebastian Maslow



10. ‘The World Is Marveling at Japan!’ Japanese Strategies to Avoid its ‘Crisis of Confidence’


Shogo Suzuki



Conclusion: Narrating Japan’s Crisis, Narrating Japan’s Rebirth


Sebastian Maslow and Christian Wirth



Contributors

Index

About the author

Sebastian Maslow is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Sendai Shirayuri Women’s College in Japan. He is the coeditor (with Ra Mason and Paul O’Shea) of
Risk State: Japan’s Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty.
Christian Wirth is Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Griffith University Asia Institute. He is the author of
Danger, Development and Legitimacy in East Asian Maritime Politics: Securing the Seas, Securing the State.